1. Field of the Invention
The invention idea gets from PhD Thesis for first inventor (Alkandari) and supervised by second inventor (Al-Shaikhli) in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). The present invention relates to an accident detection system. More specifically, the invention is a smart system for detecting accidents in a traffic management system for use in a roadway utilizing a two-layer framework and architecture that includes a physical layer and an application layer. The system is connected to and based on a wireless sensor network (WSN). The system utilizes a series of strategically placed sensors connected through the WSN, which senses vehicles in real time to acquire traffic data such as an impediment in traffic flow. The smart accident detection system incorporates fuzzy (probabilistic) logic via the sensors to detect accidents, inoperative vehicles, and similar traffic disturbances.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent times, it has become difficult to know whether an accident has occurred and to determine the location where the traffic impediment has happened. It is difficult for traffic management systems to be informed of traffic accidents or traffic impediments and the local police or local traffic office are usually not informed until someone reports the traffic impediment. These traffic impediments add to an already congested roadway, increases commuter traffic time, and amplifies the probability of chance accidents resulting from further road congestion. Not to mention heavy traffic congestion means additional vehicle breaking and stopping which means more wear on vehicles, more money spent maintaining vehicles, and higher gas costs for automobile owners.
Advancements in technology have allowed for various forms of wireless communication technologies to be used in intelligent traffic management systems. These intelligent traffic management systems relate to different modes of transport and traffic flow. Traffic management systems enable various users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and smarter use of transport roadways. The current forms of wireless technologies used in detecting traffic accidents can use a Global Positioning System (GPS) which is attached to a vehicle or a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) which is attached to a mobile device, for example.
Some traffic management systems use the GPS technology to monitor a GPS based vehicle in detecting traffic accidents. The GPS based vehicle commonly includes an accident identification module containing a vibrating sensor and a GPS modem connected to a microcontroller. The GPS monitors the speed of a vehicle and detects a vehicle's accident based on the monitoring of the vehicle's speed, the vibrating sensor, and sends the location and time of the accident from the GPS data processed by the microcontroller in a vehicle to alert a service center. Traffic accidents so determined are generally recorded and analyzed in guiding traffic on the roadway by a traffic management system.
Traffic management systems have also employed the use of Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks (WSANs) in traffic control. A typical WSAN consists of a larger set of miniaturized sensor nodes reporting their data to significantly fewer actor (actuator) nodes. Sensors probe their surroundings and report their findings to one or multiple actors, which process the collected sensor reports and respond to emerging events of interest.
The use of WSANs in assisting in the management of traffic systems is expected to decrease motor traffic delay, decrease commuter time, and increase work productivity. Moreover, earlier notification of traffic accidents can decrease accident fatalities and save precious human life. There appears to be a need for an accident detection system incorporating the use of sensor networks, such as wireless sensor networks, in detecting traffic accident and road impediments by allowing the sensor nodes to receive the approximate location of a traffic accident or impediment on the roadway and to provide a method of using that information to assist in the traffic management. Thus, an accident detection system infrastructure using a wireless sensor network addressing the aforementioned problems is desired.